Baby To-Do List:
Get Pregnant. Go see my Doctor or Midwife. Hire a Doula...wait, what? What's a doula? What do they do, and how can they help me? Learn all about the benefits and roles of a doula that can help you in your entire pregnancy, delivery, and even postpartum journey!
For some new moms, supplementation is a temporary chapter to fill in a gap in caloric needs, while others may need to supplement their breast milk supply the duration of their time lactating. And that is ok!
Once you’re pregnant or in pre-pregnancy planning, you start learning about all sorts of things that you’d never thought about before, like diastasis recti, which sometimes it needs special attention. But many expectant and new moms wonder how do you know the difference, how it affects your health, and is there anything you can do to prevent it or treat it?
One of the major questions from new moms, especially breastfeeding moms, is what their diet should look like in postpartum and how to ensure they have a healthy diet to provide the best for what their baby needs. A well-rounded diet rich in nutrition is a priority when breastfeeding. While many assume it has to do with their milk supply, milk production, and milk composition, evidence suggests that nutrition has more to do with the health status of the lactating mother in many ways.
Many working moms who breastfeed and exclusively pump face the challenge of pumping during the work day, and they do so successfully with some preparation. As a pumping mom, all you need is a little confidence, a solid plan, and reliable resources.
Sometime in your 3rd trimester, you’re going to start packing a bag or two in preparation for your baby’s birth day. It can be overwhelming to try to decide exactly what you need to have with you—that’s why we made a checklist to make packing your hospital bag easier!
Are you planning to breast pump and nervous about comfort? Well, if a task can be done comfortably and almost effortlessly, it’s going to feel less like a task, not to mention, easier to stick to a goal for duration. So let’s discuss ways to best accomplish positioning and techniques to improve pumping!
Let’s discuss breastfeeding both comfortably and effectively after having a cesarean section. We know it’s important to bond with your little one, but it’s equally important to take care of your cesarean birth recovery and postpartum journey with comfortable positions, breastfeeding concerns, breast pumps, and when to reach out to a lactation consultant for breastfeeding help.
Let’s talk about positions! Positioning refers to how we hold the baby while nursing, but it can also mean different positions while bottle feeding and pumping. Contrary to popular belief, while breastfeeding is a natural phenomenon, positioning is part of why breastfeeding is very much a learned behavior and technique.
Having a baby comes with plenty of new tasks and adjustments. Pumping may not need to be immediately part of the equation. Milk supply adequacy is often an anxiety-driven reason to implement pumping right away, having that visual of milk as reassurance. Unfortunately, pumping output is not a great gauge for total milk supply, especially not in the first days postpartum, and can worsen any anxiety already present. On the flip side, with pumps becoming more efficient than ever, it may create an oversupply if feeding at the breast AND pumping, telling the body to create milk for more babies than there actually is/are. Supply is demand-driven.
